9+1 Q&A with Rx27

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

Joie Blaney -when I first heard Hanoi rocks, the ny dolls and Black Sabbath it gave me a point of view I was searching for. Then came Bob Dylan and it blew me away that a man can say what he believes that felt so honest and true. Then Guns N’ Roses came out and told stories of a darker side of life and I identified how they felt. And the song were about love and death and what happens in between it all. This band Rx27 is a dreamlike band or family for me. The core is Thad Maxine and myself. We honor each other process and let each other become the best performers writers and artist we can be. I will sing a line that I didn’t write if it caters to the song. For me it’s about being vulnerable and open to criticism. I like criticism. It makes me look at things in a very well rounded way. Open to new ideas and collaboration makes this band what it is today.

Thad Coleman-I grew up in music. My parents were hippies and put an instrument in my hand as young as 2 or 3. Guitar and Dulcimer mainly. But also bongos and pots and pans. I got serious around 17 and finally got a “real” bass. My inspiration aside from a lifelong love of all music was probably a mix of the rock roll glory of the great 70 bands and the raw excitement of the early punk bands. I desperately wanted to be a part of that.

Mx: Old time records were played in the house when I was a kid—of Sinatra, Judy Garland, Dean Martin—and the older I became, found my own genres/types of music I fell in love with. Moved to LA 6 years ago with my violin and lots of experience playing in school orchestra— all of a sudden I began getting asked to bring it and try jamming with friends. For some reason I showed up, tried it out, kept it up.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

Joie Blaney– chasing crazy was originally called fuck forever. But we changed the title to make it accessible and not have people ore judge it. We are getting reviews back and some of the reviews are really spot on and the reviewer gets it. And some come back and I wonder did they listen to the same song. Four letter words are polarizing for some. To me it’s just another word. In the song it has a deeper meaning that I feel is being over looked. The song is about living in the moment no matter what anyone says. For me the moment is the spectacular now. Forever is the moment you are in. Nobody is promised tomorrow. Nobody is promised a happy life. Life is what you make of it. I can’t stand the saying it is what it is. To me life love and art are what you make of your inner feelings of an outer experience. I like the song a lot. When we play it live it is early on in the set and it turns a lot of heads. The video is really dark too. I can’t wait to see what happens when the world sees it. When we were filming it there were a couple shots that made people feel uncomfortable. Me and Maxine we’re fine but wait til you will see it.

Thad Coleman-“Chasing Crazy” came to me and Joie as we were driving together one day. It was initially inspired by the anthemic type choruses found in a of suicidal tendencies albums. We wanted to get that but also manically break away from it too.

Mx: We’re excited to be releasing our music video to go with our single “Chasing Crazy”. It’s not what you think and it’s everything you think. The info is in the lyrics, the video concepts, our faces and in our lives.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

Mx: My parents, Bauhaus, X, Garbage, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Iris Berry, Gitane DeMone, Shirley Manson. Alice Bag, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Deftones, Orgy, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Vice Squad, The Nuns, The Red Scare with Bobbi Brat

Thad Coleman-Music wise… Pixies, Gang of Four, Led Zeppelin, Jesus and Mary Chain, everything from the 50s.
Non music wise.. I love Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Howie Keck

joie blaney – life is one big messed up beautiful ball of inspiration. I look at my life and the lives of the lives of others around me and I tell how I feel about it all. To be a fly on the wall. Or an active participant in life. To put feelings into words and into song is a gift that I will cherish. I like the music that I have written. And if others do. It’s pretty awesome feeling. I try not to listen to much music out there especially writing new material. I love ginger wildheart. He is one gifted man. As well as bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Stiv Bators. Stiv was underated. I like poetic lyrics that have universal appeal. So I also concur with the other members of the band about musical tastes. They are inspiring to me both Maxine and Thad. They make me a better writer and singer. They drive me to my greater good. I am in competition with myself most of the time. But to have core members of a band inspire me is pretty great.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

Mx– We are two passionate & poetic, stubborn & chaotic vocalists you can’t stop staring at with big voices to be heard including our bassist’s Thad. The three of us have our hearts set on reaching the masses especially the younger generations. Our songs are set to wake people up, make ‘me keep us in their mouthed and minds whether there’s approval or not. Whether dark soul sounding or upbeat punky sounding, we are a movement and we won’t give up.

Joie Blaney– all I can say is we have a process to writing songs. We write all the songs on acoustic guitars. In a room. And we either have the lyrics written or it may inspire lyrics. But they need represent each other. we demo the hell out of the songs. I mean a bunch of different ways. We use garage band. People say you should use blah blah. And I don’t wanna learn a program. It’s garage band on an iPad. We set a tempo and basic drum beat and record with an irig . We lay down the foundation and then i sing and so does Maxine. Thad is writing most of all the music. I contribute some music here and there but I live lyrics. The more the better. I kinda drive Thad nuts sometimes.I send him lyrics and Maxine sends me lyrics. And we let the magic happen. I take my time with the lyrics. Maxine throws lyrics In. She can write one sentence and it inspires me to write a page. They are honest and true. I love poetry and setting it to music. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. No cheap rhymes. No shortcuts. My gut tells me when We have the right lyric. Maxine sings and we work the harmonies and hooks.we fine tune the song for a couple weeks. It’s very much the process they did when they had A and R men. We don’t have a shortage of songs. We have 35 songs in various demo stages and that’s not including the 6 we did with Paul Roessler. And they are always being polished. I am not a perfectionist. I trust the process and delay gratification. A new song has that new song smell. It needs time to find its legs. We have been together for a little less than a year but truly the band really came together after the first show. We knew we had to get more versatile players. We have gone through a bunch of drummers and guitar players. We won’t settle for a hobbyist or somebody who wants to play dad rock. To me this is art. The highest form of expression of myself. and who do we sound like. We sound like us. The band has a vision for a sound. I hate being compared to other band that aren’t even close to our sound. When a reviewer writes generic Southern California punk. I write them Back and say please show me who sound like. I hear our influences it’s no big secret. You can here The pixies, the lords of the news church, the dead boys and John and exene from X. We are like X on steroids but it’s us writing honest songs. Are they good. I think so but I leave it up to the listener. All I know in my heart of hearts they are honest.

Thad Coleman -Our sound is still emerging but at the moment we are based in capturing the raw emotion and day to day struggles each of us face. We like to soar and we love the melodic.. look for more darkness soon

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Thad Coleman– Movies. Wild at heart, Lost Highway, Miller’s Crossing.
Albums. Come on Pilgrim(Pixies), Violent Femmes 1st album, Presence (Led Zeppelin)
Books. The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman. Anything by Philip K Dick

Joie Blaney– Wow that’s tuff. I will need three discographies of the following bands
Guns N’ Roses, stiv bators
And Johnny cash.
Books would be please kill me by legs McNeil. The complete works of Khalil Gibran and and the complete books of rumi.
Movies is easy but it has to be the trilogies of Star Wars. The Godfather and man on fire.

Mx: 1.) “JUJU” album Siouxsie & the banshees 2.) Pink Floyd 3.) Dean Koontz, & Iris berry’s works.

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

Joie Blaney-They are two different animals and I cherish every moment I have writing and playing music so that’s like asking which do you like better you legs or or arms.

Thad Coleman -Live. No question. Studio is very rewarding but it’s a microscope…live is pure energy

Mx– ABSOLUTELY PERFORMING LIVE — ANYDAY. I have never found any greater most fulfilling experience of magic than being on a stGe with people I love and adore, making music and sharing gifts with those who want them

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

Thad Coleman-I took a break. It was too long. End of funny story.

Joie blaney– There is a bunch. Two that stick out in my mind are I got booed at a book party for Abbie Hoffman. There was a bunch of snooty rich people and the author asked a friend of mine to bring some acts down to play it. I played first and got booed. I didn’t even care. At least I got their attention. I was playing solo acoustic and singing acoustic punk songs. And one time it ain’t funny but scary I got jumped on stage in nyc by some drunk dude and again I was playing solo acoustic and he came up and tried to grab my guitar. I beat the piss outnif him and dragged him out the stage door. It’s scary because I get lost in the song. I sometimes feel like I am back in the emotions or experience of writing it or reliving them. And I was startled and just didn’t care.

Mx-a bunch but I want to have more. I gotta run now but I will let the boys finish this up with you.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

Joie Blaney– Our first single gasoline. It happen by Devine intervention. I forgot to put the high hats in the mix when demoing it and I loved it. When Thad sent over the basic parts I spent the whole day messing with it. Also I wanted it to be a duet and when we were looking for singers I heard Maxines voice and we stopped looking. She came over and recorded a demo of it with me and I told Thad. We need to get her in the band. Her voice is that is timeless. And we blend really well together.

Thad Coleman– Right now there a few unreleased tracks I could mention but focusing on the new release I’d say that one. It’s got grit.. and sugar.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

Thad Coleman– We intend to tour extensively and produce at least one main release per year. Europe we want you.

Joie Blaney– We want to do everything and anything to make great art and put on performances. I never consider us a bar band. In fact some bars aren’t set up for bands but everybody wants to play them. I don’t. I wanna play performance places. We play music. We don’t sell beer. We have to play bars right now but I wanna bring it to a bigger louder place. Give a show that the people go wow 2 lead singers who can sing and not be tied to an instrument. We all have great chemistry. Nothing is rehearsed just the music. It’s almost like we become possessed

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

What is the vision for joie blaney of rx27?

It to live free create art and leave a legacy behind me of memories and songs. I am never ever afraid or uncomfortable onstage. I am afraid to get off it. It’s sucks not being onstage or in a studio or with the band. These people are my family. And the fans. Are an extension of that. They are family too. Whether they like it or not.

Photo credits: Sara Beller (1st one)

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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